Niata Trackday - [ SUBMISSIONS CLOSED ]

Community Challenges & Competitions
1



Niata Trackday
STATUS – SUBMISSIONS CLOSED


UPDATE
Submissions currently being graded!


Hello engineers,

This challenge is a relatively straightforward one. In order to raise funds for the group’s vape juice supply, the local Niata Racing League is hosting a High Performance Track Day at the nearby racetrack. This will be an engineering and design competition to discover which team is capable of designing the most competitive track-oriented automobile, given the same 1997 1.8L Nazda Niata base, and a strict set of performance requirements.



 



DESIGNDIRECTION

To be considered valid for the competition, a car must remain somewhat in line (haha engine joke) with the general design direction specified. Specified, specifically, the specification is a fully committed and equipped Track Toy. This Niata’s design should live for the Touge, agile around corners, while remaining quick in the straights. It should remain faithful to the stock Niata’s characteristic controllable oversteer and lightness. Keep in mind, however, that this is not a street-oriented vehicle; this is for LARPing as Max Verstappen while you lap middle-aged men in their base model C6 Corvette’s at the local track.


Possible Inspiration








 

 



1997 1.8L NAZDA NIATA

The second gen Nazda Niata is the infamous affordable sports car with a focus on being a fun, lightweight RWD roadster, sacrificing high power output for supreme handling that feels just as fast on the track.

ENGINE: NA DOHC Inline 4

POWER: 138hp @ 6,100 RPM

ECO: 25.6 MPG

DRIVETRAIN: 5-Speed Manual RWD

TORQUE: 132.9lb-ft @ 4,900 RPM

WEIGHT: 2322 lbs.





Download Niata
Note: If the car files are not working for you, you may need Swart's Not a Miata Grille installled.

- Basic Interior Included:

Nazda_-_Niata_wInterior.car (34.2 KB)

- No Interior Included:

Nazda_-_Niata.car (27.0 KB)

 

 



RULES


Please follow these rules carefully. Any car submitted not following these will be automatically disqualified, and potentially may not be notified after, especially in cases where multiple rules were disregarded.

General
  • Game Version 4.2
  • All mods available are legal.
  • Maximum one car submission per person, one resubmission attempt allowed.
  • Do not edit engine or car family settings.
  • No LUA editing, cheat fixtures, etc.

Quality, Engineering and Cost
  • Quality Slider
    • Min: -6
    • Max: +3
    • Important: You may use up two +4 quality and one +5 quality throughout your entire car project.
  • Engine/Car Engineering Time Limit: 150
  • Approximate Cost Limit: $60,000

Engine
    Do not edit engine family settings. Only variant settings are allowed to be edited.
    Engine Year
      Family: 1997
      Variant: Up to you, 2020 recommended.
    Max Power: 300 hp
    Turbocharged RPM Max: 9500
    NA RPM Max: Unrestricted
    If not detailed below, all available engine tech is fair game
    Aspiration
      The engine may be naturally aspirated or turbo charged.
      Smart Boost is not allowed.
    Fuel System
      Direct Injection is not allowed.
      Unleaded Ultimate 100 RON fuel only.
      No fuel tuning.
    Exhaust
      Catalytic Converter Required.

Car Trim
    Do not edit car family settings. Only variant settings are allowed to be edited.
    Car Year
      Family: 1997
      Variant: Up to you, 2020 recommended.
    Body Molding
      You may only edit the wheel flares and bumpers.
    If not detailed below, all available car tech is fair game.
    Fixtures
      All valid cars must have the basics (exhaust, door handles, lights).
      Ancillary details (wipers, antennae, interiors, livery) are not required but are strongly recommended.
      No cheat fixtures or excessive/hidden wing usage.
    Drivetrain
      RWD required.
       Speed Limit (via gearing or limiter): 200 mph
    Wheels
      Radial Semi Slicks required.
      Tire Width Limits:
        Front: 215
        Rear: 235
      Max Tire Diameter: 25 inches
      Rim Diameter
        Max: 17 inch
        Min: 14 inch
      Max Offset: 80 inch
    Interior
      Power Steering: Hydraulic
      Traction Aids: None
      No safety requirement (might roll this back, but keeping it as is in an effort to pursue lightweight designs)
    Suspension
      “Active/Semi Active” tech not allowed.

 



SCORING

The competing teams will be scored using the recently developed PEANR system. Little is known about the creator outside of rumors of his extreme well-endowment. What is the PEANR system, you might be asking? Kindly direct your eyes below:

PERFORMANCE
ENGINEERING
AESTHETICS
NUANCE
RACING
A team's final score is determined by five separate categories. Each category, through various metrics you can learn more about below, will sum to 20 points each (EDIT: Now experimenting with differing category weights to improve balance), and all will total to 100 points. A "perfect car" would earn 20 points (more or less now) in each category, totaling to 100 points; however, this is not the limit to the amount of points you can earn. There is the opportunity in every category to earn extra points through various means of going above and beyond, from earning the most likes on the forum to feats of engineering to top track times. This can enable your team to cover for lacking areas, or even top the competition. Please note, however, that as more cars enter the competition, your rank is dynamic, and subject to change at any time until the competition ends. This is for two reasons: one, your final score is partially determined by your distribution among other competing teams in other categories, namely Racing. Two, as much as I will attempt to avoid it, the weighting of different scoring methods may be subject to initial change as I see how it scales. This is my first time and I enjoy eating crayons, so a mistake is not unlikely. Suggestions are welcome, and I may roll the whole system over to the normal distribution ranking system if the point weights do not hold up.

 

Scoring In Detail

PERFORMANCE - 15 pts
    Sportiness - very heavily weighted
    Drivability - very lightly weighted

ENGINEERING - 20 pts
    Reliability - very lightly weighted
    Power-to-Weight Ratio - heavily weighted
    Engine Performance Index - lightly weighted
    Bonus Points - 1-5 bonus pts
    • Rewarded for interesting and extreme feats of engineering.

AESTHETICS - 15 pts
    Overall - 1-15 pts
    • 1 being the worst car I have ever seen, 20 being a beautiful car with no inherent flaws.
    • Subjective, I know, but I will attempt to bias towards other's comments towards your vehicle as well.
    Interior Inclusion Bonus Points - 0-2 bonus pts
    • If you create your own interior, or at least add upon the base, these are free points.
    Bonus Points - 0-5 bonus pts
    • Rewarded for noteable aesthetic features and designs.

NUANCE - 20 pts
    Realism - 1-10 pts
    • How realistic is your car? A tuned racing machine, or an overheating jet wing?
    Faithfulness to Original Niata Design/Handling - 1-10 pts
    • The Niata is famous for its controllable oversteer and agile handling. Does your car still retain the Niata spirit?
    Crowd Pleaser - 0-10 bonus pts
    • Are you a fan favorite?
      • 10 pts for the most liked car.
      • 5 pts for second, 2.5 for third.
      • No more points rewarded after that.

RACING - 30 pts
    REMINDER: Your score in this category is dynamic, and will change over time.
    Additionally, all ranking is done via Normal distribution. Best and worst times will strongly reward or penalize you, respectfully.
    0-60 MPH Ranking - 0-5 pts
    1/4 Mile Ranking - 0-10 pts
    Automation Track Time Ranking - 0-20 pts
    • Cumulative time of three in-game tracks, Automation, Nordschleife (Green Hell), and a mystery track.
    Feel Rating in BeamNG - 1-5 pts
    • Using a T150 Pro Force Feedback Wheel in BeamNG, how does the car feel to drive?





Ranking Sheets

Below you will find a link to all the statistic sheets used in this competion. Here's a quick rundown of what each of the tabs are:

Car Rank - Overall leaderboard of all cars in the competition.

Ranking - Individual leaderboards for Likes, 0-60, 1/4 Mile, and Total Lap Time.

"Car Name" - Individual car PEANR scores.



UPDATE
In an effort to increase competitiveness without the risk of score sniping, detailed scoring and track times will now remain hidden until the end of the competition. You can still access the final leaderboard below. Additionally, I'm letting early submissions submit their draft prematurely, under an anonymous pending car, to better get a feel for scoring.


LINK TO SHEETS

Niata Trackday Racing Sheets



 



SUBMISSION
SUBMISSIONS OPEN
11:59 PM 01/10/2022


Central Standardino Time


SUBMISSIONS CLOSE
11:59 PM 02/06/2022

Submission Format
Model/Engine Family Name: Niata Trackday - Your Forum Username
Trim Name: Your Car's Name
Variant Name: Your Engine's Name

IMPORTANT
I'm not sure what the current state of Automation's import feature clone safety is, so to be safe, make sure to clone all before submitting, to avoid overwrite conflicts.

All valid submissions are required to have an accompanying forum post showcasing at least one image of their vehicle, along with info about it. Of course, leaning into this is encouraged, including the team aspect, and how you show it off. Up to 5 bonus points in Aesthetics can be earned if you go above and beyond here.

Submit via DM on forums only.


 

5 Likes
2

Is this challenge in 4.1 or 4.2?

3

4.2

4

That might explain why the use of Smart Boost is not allowed - that feature was not in 4.1, but was introduced in 4.2.

5

I’ve been playing automation for almost 2 years, and I understand how to make an amazing car that scores really well in game. I have hundreds of models and even more engines, and I almost completed story line. So why is it that when I make a theoretically perfect budget car in game, and export it to Beam.NG Drive, the car handles like poo after 50 miles an hour? It bums me out that after spending hours to get 300 across the board and an amazing looking car, I can’t even take it around the track. Someone said that it had something to do with tire heat and how Beam.NG Drive doesn’t calculate heat so grip is extremely low?

6

There’s a few factors in beam that tend to differ from what the graphs in Automation say. Beam measures drag differently than Automation, and although its gotten better (and supposedly is going to improve dramatically). So Automation might say your wing will give you a ton of downforce, but it may not reflect well in Beam. Additionally, tire grip is handed off weird, and maxing quality in Automation increases grip in BeamNG. A lot of this seems to have improved in the opt-in alpha, but it’s just growing pains, it’s usually more avoidable if you actually model your car off physics requirements, instead of the scores Automation gives you.

7

ALSO: I plan on enabling submissions tonight if no further tweaks are suggested or noticed.

8

getting a high score in a car market in automation doesn’t mean that car is going to be a drivable car in beamng. there are some parameters that are good for markets but ends with a not so good car when its simulated

9

Right, that’s a competitiveness stat, but in terms of a stat like sportiness, or drivability, they don’t align as well as you’d expect sometimes. It’d be hard to make a stat that would though, just based off of a grading scheme.

10




SUBMISSIONS OPEN
11:59 PM 01/10/2022



SUBMISSIONS CLOSE
11:59 PM 01/29/2022



1 Like
11

It is entirely possible that I am just stupid, but I can’t get the car in Automation. Am I just doing something wrong or did something change after the update?. Worked fine before. Or does it have some mods that I don’t or something?

12

Check you are on the open beta 4.2 version, you need to go into steam, automation, properties and then select the correct version. Could be that.

13

I am

14

The folder also moved, it’s now at
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\AutomationGame\Saved\UserData\CarSaveImport

Instead of the documents one

15

Oof, if mods are the problem it may be that I used the 4.2 miata grill mod, I forgot to mention it!

16

I don’t think a grille would stop me from getting the car, before it just said it has some mods that I don’t and I can load the car without the ones I don’t have. I think it must be the folder change because when I open Automation there is nothing about an imported car so it doesn’t even know I’m trying to import it

17

I believe the file location in 4.2 changed to AppData, you could probably get there by going to the .car export and clicking open folder

18

yeah I got it now by going to Automation and from there to the import folder. Before I didn’t need to go through Automation but it works now anyway. Thanks

19

Note: Make sure to tell people to clone the car before editing/submitting. Otherwise, when you try to import them, Automation will think they’re all one car, and they’ll all override each other (and the original).

2 Likes
20

Probably a bug, but cloning the car - not creating a new variant - gives me a model set to 2020 which I can’t change. Also all model variant settings are lost when cloning. If I create a new variant for the model and engine, that should be fine, no?